SWTOR Free to Play ?

[Deleted]

F2Play? No thanks I prefer to pay a fixed amount every month and have garanteed customer support, patches, continual balancing (yes all class utopia is impossible) and game improvements.

Everyone else saying the game is dead, keep thinking that please and continue playing wow or whatever temporary game you play, until you point out all the negative things about it and quit over imbalances or get bored because you dont know what you want or even enjoy. its simple if you dont enjoy it or play it why even respond or post in swtor forums? (Im not against freedom of speech)

I play a merc healer, which atm is a frustrating class to play in pvp and pve compared to other classes, just as a preventive answer to any quoting that I play a fotm class

I enjoy swtor so much, and I have played wow for 7 years, been RL, GM everything... in my opinion I prefer swtor and I dont give a damn anymore if people say its dead, as a reassurance for their self confidence.

[konishiwa]

Another uninformed post. They're NOT going F2P already - it's a demo, which tons of MMOs do now (including WoW and RIFT). Research the subject instead of "reading between the lines."

Youre missing my point entirety, since my primary language is not english i probably have some dificult to express what i want to say.

The only way to them to gather more subscribers at this point is not launching F2P demos or such, thats a cheap way to blind the market and i can almoust guarantee that thats not gonna bring paid subscribers into the game, i say and continue to say that they dont give a damn anymore, something happen between them and EA and before starting to think in ways to get people back they first need to show they care and work on improvements, and fast, very fast.

[Azuri]

The only way to them to gather more subscribers at this point is not launching F2P demos or such, thats a cheap way to blind the market and i can almoust guarantee that thats not gonna bring paid subscribers into the game

I'm not sure I understand this statement, no free demo's of the game is a bad idea? So WoW, Rift and others made a mistake by doing this?

[konishiwa]

No, WoW and Rift did good and others, its all about timing you see, when you have a game bleeding subscriptions you dont do what BW did whit that statement, first fix things and add content, keep the momentum going whit fixes after fixes that actualy fix anything, then adopt a demo for people to try the improvements they made, i think its what a demo is for in this case, for people to see what they did to fix the problems that made most people quit.

[Chriztin]

Lot of F2P games earn more money now then before

[Ricen]

WoW would have to lose a lot of subscribers, before Blizzard would want it to go free to play. WoW is way, far past the critical mass of subscribers needed, to make the sub model the most viable payment model. It would have to sink below 2 million or so, to be in the same position as SWTOR, where they'd have to start looking at alternative methods of making a profit. I just don't see WoW losing 8+ million subscribers within 5 years

As for other MMOs (SWTOR included), I think you may very well be right, though. There will still be a couple like EVE because it's so niche, or WoW because it's super popular, but the overwhelming majority (again, SWTOR included) will likely be free to play

Sorry i wasn't talking about Wow should of made that clear. I meant new MMOs. I Agree with you, Wow is past that point, they have so many subs that they can still on the sub model.

[A Challenger!]

In 2004, World of Warcraft was pretty similar to Everquest, but it has since evolved into something far different. The two are no longer really comparable

The problem is that SWTOR is more similar to Everquest, than it is to present day World of Warcraft

I don't like to use the word "clone" for this discussion, but to put it in your terms, SWTOR is a clone of a game that came out 10 years ago, while WoW is it's own man

lold. I don't like to use the word clone, but when I do, I like to be a complete hypocrite.

So it is fine for WoW to be a casual mans Everquest back in "the day", but SWTOR commits some treasonous crime, regardless of if it copied or not? Don't kid yourself pal, you blame both or you shouldn't bother at all.

WoW commits the horrible crime most MMO's do these days; it tries to satisfy everyone by homogenizing everything, simplifying mechanics, etc. WoW was never its own game. The lore was always poorly utilized, and WoW always "borrowed" elements from some other game, regardless of what it was. WoW has never "evolved" or been unique, it has always been cleverly copying off of everything around it, becoming an amalgamation of pre-used ideas given new life.

Now do not get me wrong, I do not condone SWTOR either, as SWG was a beautiful game that I still to this day am nostalgic over. SWTOR has a clear cut idea of how to make an amazing Star Wars game through example, and instead fell brutally short. That is not to say it is a bad game, but it clearly is not what it could have been.

But again I will repeat: WoW is absolutely nothing special, and certainly has not evolved. The only thing WoW has proven, is you can spray paint shit gold, and so long as you are one hell of a business man, anyone will buy it and love the hell out of it.

(Note for those who will take the above the wrong way: I am not calling WoW shit, I am saying that Activision-Blizzard is a business juggernaut, and really knows how to work their customers, regardless of how questionable their product is.)

[ZerOKami]

I would so come back to SWTOR if it went F2P, loved the game forthe most part <3 But I'm never paying a subscription for a game ever again, not after GW2. Also it would bring back a low of the community plus newcomers, so it would be a great way to liven up the game.

[Decan]

My head hurts from reading all this shit.... I really don't care if its sub or f2p as long as the game is going I don't care. I am having fun playing it and I find it more fun the wow.

[Purplekitti]

I sure hope so, I would really like to play this game casually, I can't justify the sub for it though.

Pretty much this. I'd like to play it but I certainly wasn't getting my £9 a month out of it, which is why I stopped.

[MoanaLisa]

Did he say that with a straight face while snorting blow of a hookers ass?

Blizzard will watch and see how things go. The very day their accountants tell them that F2P is a better business model for them than what they're doing now, they will do it. It may not happen for years. But they'll do it if it makes sense.

That is not at all the same thing as saying they're considering F2P for WoW in the same way that Bioware is considering F2P for SW:TOR.

[ringthree]

An honest question,

Can anyone remember a game where a developer mentioned the F2P model in a positive light that didn't later go F2P?

I am of the opinion that SWTOR won't go F2P. It doesn't really make sense when still have so many players (and yes, even with the reported drops, and the expected drops, they still have a huge number of subs compared to the rest of the genre, WoW is an outlier). While 500k players is break even, I am sure that over the years it turns into profit.

[Rellitan]

I am of the opinion that SWTOR won't go F2P. It doesn't really make sense when still have so many players (and yes, even with the reported drops, and the expected drops, they still have a huge number of subs compared to the rest of the genre, WoW is an outlier). While 500k players is break even, I am sure that over the years it turns into profit.

In a few years, perhaps like AION, but otherwise, agree 100% with this.

[Vexies]

I could care less if they go free to play or not. So long as the quality of whats there doesnt change then im good. Yes, yes Im well aware that those of you who dont like the game will take arms at me mentioning "quality" thats your opinion and thats fine so please dont feel the need to post your proclamations all over again. The model could work very well however its way to early to tell what there intentions are and way to early in my opinion for them to even talk about it.

The one palm face worthy aspect of this is how very little they seem to understand PR, how to manage it and how to generate and keep generating positive PR. I mean really.. you finally get the majority of the servers merged people all happy playin and for once in a long while some positive PR going.. and yep right on Que they have to open there big mouths and cause another community controversy.

Whether they intend to do this or not could they not wait a month or so and get the next patch out the door / capitalize on their momentum without yet again shooting themselves in the foot? I can sometimes just imagine the guys over at Bioware throwing papers in the air and sayin "what the hell did he just say!! For christ sake.."

[BloodchargedWoW]

I could care less if they go free to play or not. So long as the quality of whats there doesnt change then im good. Yes, yes Im well aware that those of you who dont like the game will take arms at me mentioning "quality" thats your opinion and thats fine so please dont feel the need to post your proclamations all over again. The model could work very well however its way to early to tell what there intentions are and way to early in my opinion for them to even talk about it.

The one palm face worthy aspect of this is how very little they seem to understand PR, how to manage it and how to generate and keep generating positive PR. I mean really.. you finally get the majority of the servers merged people all happy playin and for once in a long while some positive PR going.. and yep right on Que they have to open there big mouths and cause another community controversy.

Whether they intend to do this or not could they not wait a month or so and get the next patch out the door / capitalize on their momentum without yet again shooting themselves in the foot? I can sometimes just imagine the guys over at Bioware throwing papers in the air and sayin "what the hell did he just say!! For christ sake.."

Just ignore them, it's pretty obvious that the Mods in the SWTOR section let them get away with there "trolling" on a frequent basis.

On topic, I really don't see them going the F2P route anytime soon. Honestly, I see them gaining quite a big boost in subscribers if of course the launch of 1.3 is successful.

[Forsedar]

With server consolidations and now 1.3 around the corner- with 1.4 in the future, I can see them gaining back a big portion of their lost subscriber base. I mean 1.4 is basically an expansion in itself and its FREE (aside from the sub fee).

[Jarlathe]

I gave a quote. There are many quotes out there, actually. Instead of sitting in threads denying every little thing- do some research. Its not hard to look throughout google for quotes of certain things.

Way to completely miss the joke, and the point. Also, FYI, when you say someone said something, it's generally up to you to link your source, not telling someone else to go google it. And for the record, I have no doubt that that was said, see my point below.

Blizzard will watch and see how things go. The very day their accountants tell them that F2P is a better business model for them than what they're doing now, they will do it. It may not happen for years. But they'll do it if it makes sense.

That is not at all the same thing as saying they're considering F2P for WoW in the same way that Bioware is considering F2P for SW:TOR.

And that was my point, in a joking way. Right now, this year, I can promise you that WoW will not go F2P, they are making way to much money (hence the joke). At some point in the distant future though I can absolutely see see WoW going that route. When it's shed enough subs that it's just not worth it for Blizzard to keep patching and releasing expansions, I can see them just consolidating servers down to one or two or whatever and just adding in a cash shop for items and keeping a bare minimum of staff supporting it.

[Forsedar]

Way to completely miss the joke, and the point. Also, FYI, when you say someone said something, it's generally up to you to link your source, not telling someone else to go google it. And for the record, I have no doubt that that was said, see my point below.

In all fairness, its kind of hard to see jokes now on these forums :/ I didn't mean to miss it. I was probably too blinded by everything else occurring in this thread.

[Vexies]

I can absolutely see see WoW going that route. When it's shed enough subs that it's just not worth it for Blizzard to keep patching and releasing expansions, I can see them just consolidating servers down to one or two or whatever and just adding in a cash shop for items and keeping a bare minimum of staff supporting it.

Im not sure that this is what your saying or not but its a misconception to believe that just because a game moves to a FTP or BTP model that it wont be supported, expanded and patched though. Many successful FTP games remain so and update and patch on a fairly regular basis and are far from unsupported.

[Leonard McCoy]

I'm not surprised that people who frequent this website would post about an article that can't be sourced properly (every link seems to be down), an article that even when viewed through the cached version on google doesn't give the proper context, an article that has been refuted by senior people at EA:

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...ecade-from-now

We have a great business right now and we're not looking to make any abrupt changes.

None of that surprises me one god damned bit. What does surprise and disappoint me is that the people who run this website felt it was news worth putting on the front page. I long ago accepted the principle that "mmo" champion was really a Blizzard fan site. Hell they give more information about non mmo games (diablo 3)than they do about actual mmo games (world of warcraft withstanding). From that I expected that all the changes swtor would go through over the past couple of months would be largely ignored. What disappoints me however is that they (much like the rest of the gaming media) latched onto this story as gospel when they can't properly site or source it. When the barest amount of research done on their part would show it's false and frankly when they've ignored every other piece of swtor related news up until this point. I am left to wonder about the standards and intellectual honesty and objectivity of the people who run this website. I always held them to a higher standard personally but boub and sunshine have clearly failed at this. I would ask it be taken down from the front page but at this point it's rather moot. It will disappear and die off just like the news of SWTORS impending f2p will. Hell UO is old as the hills and it's still a sub model.

Fixed a broken link ~ Dakia